Brooks on Beer: Seef, the resurrection of a beer style

Just when you think you've heard every story, you hear an amazing new tale about a beer that disappeared, only to be resurrected nearly a hundred years later.

Before World War I, the most popular beer in Antwerp, Belgium, was "Seef" or "Seefbier" -- although it's pronounced something like "safe." Most of the Belgian breweries in that region made a version, and an entire Antwerp neighborhood known for its bars and dance halls was dubbed the Seefhoek. Today, only the name remains.

As the Great War loomed closer, pilsner began replacing local beers, not just in Antwerp but everywhere. But it was the war that sealed Seef's fate. When the Germans marched through Antwerp, they dismantled the breweries and stripped the copper from the kettles, making it even more difficult for brewers to rebound after the armistice.

Seef beer was once popular in Antwerp, Belgium, but for nearly a century the recipe has been lost. In 2012, after three years of research, Johan Van Dyck resurrected the recipe. (Seef)

Enter Antwerp native Johan Van Dyck, the former marketing director for Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat, makers of Duvel, one of the tiny nation's most popular abbey beers. When Van Dyck stumbled across this historical tidbit -- that his hometown had once had this wildly popular beer style that was now lost -- he was fascinated. No recipes had survived, and few people who had once brewed the beer were still alive.

There are parallels between Van Dyck's story and the saga of San Francisco's steam beer. In the 1960s, Fritz Maytag searched high and low for information about the original steam beers and how they were brewed until he had slowly pieced together enough information to create Anchor Steam Beer in 1971.

For nearly three years, Van Dyck tramped through old breweries, Antwerp museums and libraries, searching through old newspaper articles and ancient archives. He knocked on doors, interviewed elderly retired brewers and even descendants of old brewing families before finally finding a brewer's handwritten notes about brewing Seef. The recipe was in a shoe box, left behind by a deceased relative who had worked at one of the Seef breweries in the early 20th century.

Van Dyck took the notes to two highly respected brewing scientists at the University of Leuven, father and son professors Freddy and Filip Delvaux, who agreed to analyze the recipe and help recreate Seefbier for modern brewing equipment. In a stroke of sheer serendipity, they also found some of the historic yeast used to make Seef, banked at the university.

The beer has been described as "the working man's Champagne." An 1863 account called it a "white beer that foamed like Champagne, and went to the head like port." It's a cloudy beer, like you'd see in a hefeweizen, brewed with four different grains -- barley, wheat, oats and buckwheat -- along with Belgian hops.

Seef brewer Johan Van Dyck, left, spent three years searching for the century-old recipe for Antwerp's wildly popular, lost beer. Last June
Van Dyck began exporting the beer to the United States, after a formal signing ceremony in San Francisco with then-crown prince Philippe of
Belgium, center, and Bob Leggett, President of Artisanal Imports. (Jay Brooks)

I really love the beer. It's light and refreshing, despite being 6.5 percent alcohol by volume. Although there are no spices added, the beer has a light, spicy nose with citrus and bready aromas. The mouthfeel is bubbly and effervescent. The flavors are similarly fresh and bright, with tart hop character and fruit notes throughout, with just a pleasant touch of sourness and a dry finish.

Launched in Antwerp in March 2012, it quickly sold out. At last year's World Beer Cup in San Diego -- where I was one of many judges -- Seef won a gold medal in the "Other Belgian-Style Ale" category. And Belgium's then-Crown Prince Philippe presided over signing ceremonies between Van Dyck and the beer's importer in San Francisco in June. We all talked afterward and for a while there, it looked like the Belgian minister of defense had actually convinced the future king to step out to City Beer Store to drink some Seef with us. Alas, we never saw them.

The beer is currently being contract-brewed at a brewery near Antwerp, and plans are under way to build a new Seef brewery in the city where it hasn't been seen in a century. But you won't have to go to Belgium to find it. It's available at BevMo and local beer retailers, too.